As I understand it, a born executive is a guy who, when anything difficult or unexpected happens, yells for somebody to come and help him.

To read of a detective's daring finesse or ingenious stratagem is a rare joy.

Sometimes it's things that take the joy out of life, like a blowout when you're hitting sixty or a button coming off of a shirt when you're in a hurry, but usually it's people.

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.

To say that a man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.

Everyone has something they don't want anyone to see; that is one of the functions of a home, to provide a spot to keep such things.